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AUS-BASED nonprofit organization, Search
for Common Ground, asked me to contribute an essay on
religious revivalism and fundamentalism. I decided to ask
young Muslims about it. Let me share with you some of
their thoughts. How dark must their life be to nurture these
thoughts?
What are the roots of religious revivalism,
especially religious extremism?
Struggling for self-determination,
rights of being a Muslim. We cannot live forever under
the rules of secular government.
Failure of the government to provide
economic stability in Muslim areas.
The massive corruptions (sic) on the
part of leaders even among the Muslim authority.
Unjust leadership; unequal
distribution of power and wealth even among Muslim leaders
i.e. a Maranao leader favors more Maranao people than any
other tribes. And so with the others.
Struggling for self-identity. Being a
Muslim under the secular government is quite a struggle.
People look at you with disdain no matter how you try to show
the goodness in you. It's different when you're in your own
land, of Muslims. All Muslim revolutionary groups in the world
agree on one idea: the secular society must be converted into
Islamic one.
Corruption brought about by a secular
government. Restlessness in the society, political, economic,
religious problems are among the reasons why Muslims resort to
Islamic extremism. It is better to be in the jungle than live
under the clasping claw of evil.
The root of Islamic revivalism in the
Philippine is mainly to defend Islam. Like the case of the Abu
Sayyaf Group under the leadership of Abdurajak
Janjalani. Some sources show that ASG, which literally
means the father of the sword, is a creation of the military.
It is also widely believed that this group is a splinter group
of the MNLF. However, ASG is not to create another faction in
the Muslim struggle, rather, to serve as the bridge between
the MNLF and MILF; its ultimate goal is the establishment of a
purely Islamic government, whose nature, meaning and objective
is peace.
Why are youth attracted to religious
revivalism/ fundamentalism?
Just like any other sector of the
Muslim society, we feel obligated in working for Islam. It is
more motivating than any other factors.
To be a fundamentalist is a must for
every believing Muslim, male and female. For it is the Qur'an
that must be the bases of one's life here in this World.
Otherwise, we will be munafiq (unbeliever)
The society where we live now is full
of peril and we could no longer live in apathy. We cannot just
wait for the miracle to happen. Allah said in the Holy
Qur'an-an, Innallaha La yughaiyyiru ma bi qawmin hatta
yughaiyiru ma bi anfusihim. Allah will not change the
conditions of the society unless they change it by themselves.
We have to take our part; we must do what must be done. We
have to assert ourselves, and we have to yell to the whole
world that we will be what we want to be, because no other
than the Muslims themselves know what's best for them.
To be a fundamentalist is to believe
that the sovereignty of God is one of the primary religious
values. They (government) have been creating rules that
override the wishes of God. The fundamentalists generally
believe that a secular society like the Philippines is still
in the clutch of Jahiliyya (ignorant). If all Muslims could
just realize that what is being seen on their right and left
sides is a work of evil, they would all resort to religious
fundamentalism/extremism. Besides, the youth are already fed
up with the current leaders, with their empty promises of
honest, just leadership, etc. but these were just proven to be
meaningless.
When I was a child, my friends and I lived
happy lives in Sulu, eager to grow up believing that the
future was ours to shape. These children who responded to my
questions see only a perilous future. Government needs to find
a way to reach out to our young people through the darkness of
their lives. Unfortunately, it seems that many of these youth
see government as the source of their suffering. What to
do . . .
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